


Finish What You Started

by ChaoticTrickster



Category: Licanius Series - James Islington
Genre: Canon Compliant?, Dreams, M/M, Night Terrors, maybe? - Freeform, ridiculous amounts of irony, therefore he is an oc, we know nothing about cyr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 01:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13136574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticTrickster/pseuds/ChaoticTrickster
Summary: Tal has a nightmare. This one is something new.





	Finish What You Started

**Author's Note:**

> Idek. If you read this, and are actually involved in the fandom, PLEASE leave a comment. Because we need more people who know what the fuck we're talking about.

_“Why don’t you just finish what you started?” He spat a mouthful of blood out unto the stone towards his assaulter’s boots. His back was up against the edge of the cliff, and he knew all he had to do was roll over the edge and he would die and this would end._

_Tal’kamar looked down pleadingly. “Just tell me where it is, Cyr. Tell me where it is, and we can be done.”_

_Cyr coughed again, a terrible, painful sound. “You believe that you’re doing El’s work? Some God you serve.”_

_Tal cringed. “We have done so much worse, Cyr. I have done so much worse.”_

_“It’s not worse if it’s not to one of us,” Cyr growled, and Tal looked down._

_Cyr had always had the most interesting set of morals out of all of them, and the most fluctuating loyalties. It was why Meldier had never trusted him, and why the companionship between Alaris and him had always been baffling to the rest of the Venerate._

_“I know that it hurt you,” Cyr said softly, “what he had you do. I know that you never recovered from the way the others looked at you differently. Hell, Tal, maybe you’re even right. Maybe the God we serve is the Prince of Lies. But I won’t help you kill us. I won’t help you kill_ yourself _.”_

_Tal looked down, his gaze blurry with tears. “I know you won’t,” he whispered, quiet. “I am sorry.” And he took his blade and plunged it downwards, through Cyr’s heart._

 

Tal jerked upright in bed, breathing heavily.

Cyr rolled over next to him, sitting up and looking at his partner for a long moment. “Tal? Was it… the Plains?” he asked cautiously, his hand slowly brushing against Tal’s shoulder.

Tal’kamar took a shuddering breath and slowly laid back down, staring at the ceiling. “No.”

Cyr hesitated for a beat. “The wedding?”

Tal winced and shook his head. “No. I….” Tal stopped. After what he had just Seen, could he possibly tell Cyr?

Cyr rolled over so that he was propped up on his elbow, looking down at Tal carefully. Tal felt a whisper of kan poke at his mind, and he looked up at his partner in annoyance. Cyr smirked roguishly.

Tal huffed an annoyed sigh but couldn’t help the slight smile that lifted his lips. “You’re incorrigible.”

Cyr grinned. “That’s me.” All trace of amusement suddenly fell from his eyes. “Tal, you’re shaking,” he pointed out carefully.

Tal frowned and was about to deny it when he looked down and noticed that, indeed, his hands were trembling. Shaking harder than they had since…. _Since things that he didn’t think about_ . He inhaled sharply, and then blinked in surprise when Cyr grabbed his hands and folded them together with his on top. He looked over at his partner to find no judgement in Cyr’s eyes- _because his were the only ones that never had judged him_ \- just concern.

“Not the plains and not the wedding,” Cyr said quietly. “So I’m guessing it’s something that hasn’t happened yet.”

Tal winced. Cyr was ridiculously good at reading him. “I… stabbed you,” he admitted quietly, swallowing down bile.

Cyr stared at him for a beat and then abruptly burst into laughter.

Tal recoiled in shock.

Cyr continued laughing for a few moments before visibly trying to calm himself. “Sorry, sorry! I’m not… mocking, or anything!” He promised. “I just. Fates, Tal, I was legitimately worried that you had Seen something terrible.”

Tal stared at him. “ _I_ _stabbed you_ ,” he repeated, more forcefully this time.

Cyr smiled at him gently. “Tal, I _come back_.”

Tal shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. I tortured you first, Cyr,” he blurted, hating the words as they left his lips, but _needing_ the other man to understand. He was dangerous. “And then I took your own blade and I ran you through.” He looked back at Cyr, shaking again. “I pinned you to the rock.”

Understanding and something darker flashed through Cyr’s eyes, and Tal could hardly blame him. Cyr was different than the rest of the Venerate. When they died, they came back in a different body. Cyr didn’t. He always woke up in the same body. Someone had used that against him once, trapping him inside a coffin with a massive spike through his heart. He was trapped in a loop of constantly reviving and dying for decades- maybe centuries. It was where Alaris had found him.

The moment passed though, and Cyr shook his head, a small smile tipping his lips upward again. “I’m sure I deserved it.”

Tal stared at him. “What the _hell_ , Cyr?!?” He pulled away from his comforting touch, rolling out of bed so that he could stand and look down at the other- _clearly insane_ \- Venerate. “I tell you that I just Saw me torturing, killing, and imprisoning you, and you think that _you deserved it_???”

Cyr sighed heavily and sat up a bit further, but didn’t leave the bed. The covers slipped down to his waist as he shifted, and Tal couldn’t help but let his eyes drift over the scars there. It was one of the detriments to always waking up in the same body, Cyr said. All the scars he accumulated just stuck around. Tal’s eyes lingered over where his heart would be. The heart he could _feel_ himself putting a sword through.

“Eyes are up here.” Cyr commented with a great deal of amusement, and Tal adjusted his gaze accordingly, and then sighed at the realization that Cyr still wasn’t taking this seriously.

“Cyr-”

“Nope,” the other man cut him off cheerfully, “you got to have your little rant and dramatic outburst. My turn.”

Tal shut up.

“Tal’kamar, you are, very possibly, the _stupidest_ person on the face of the planet sometimes.” Cyr smiled at him with the most kindness and fondness with which anyone had looked at Tal in a long time, taking any possible sting out of the words. “Listen, I don’t doubt that you Saw what you think you did, and that it’s just as serious as you think. And… honestly, yeah, that’s depressing as all fucking hell.

“You think I _want_ to be trapped in another prison dying over and over again for a Fates-cursed amount of time? Not exactly my idea of a good time. And the thought that _you_ , the only person I’ve yet to meet that I can stand for long periods of time, is going to do it? Not the funnest thing either. But, listen. There’s no use in fretting over it. Right here, right now, we’re both here. We’re both fine. And we’re both together. That doesn’t really happen all that often.

“So rather than fretting about the future that we all know we can’t change- have an entire religion based on the idea that it can’t change, in fact- why don’t we just embrace the now? Because, right now, I have my very attractive partner in a secluded hut with me, a surprisingly comfortable bed, and no pressing, world-ending events that we need to stop- which doesn’t happen all that often.” He smiled. “So why don’t you just enjoy it with me?”

Tal stared at him for a beat and then stared at him some more. “Why aren’t you running from me? I’m going to _kill_ you.”

Cyr scoffed. “Tal, if I ran from everyone who’d ever killed me, I’d never stand still.” After a beat, he sighed and laid his head back against the wall behind their bed with a gentle thud. “Think about it logically, Tal,” he said quietly. “If you kill me, there has to be a good reason. And we’ve already seen how far you’ll go to do the right thing. If one of us is going to turn, it’s going to be me.”

Cyr exhaled heavily even as Tal tried to find words to convince him otherwise. “We all know I have no faith, Tal.” Cyr smiled faintly. “I’m here for you. Little bit for Alaris.” He scoffed. “Do you have any idea how much I wanted to hate him at first? Goddamn self-righteous asshole just _had_ to be the last fucking genuine good person on the El-cursed planet,” he muttered before getting back on track.

“Thus, if you end up killing me, why do you think that would be? Did you seem happy about it?”

Tal looked down. “No.”

“Yeah.” Cyr sighed. “So. Apparently I betray you all. That’s… nice to know, I guess. I hope I at least have a good reason for it.”

“Cyr-”

“Just come back to bed, Tal,” Cyr said softly, almost pleading, as he held out his hand.

Tal looked at the hand and then up at Cyr’s face, letting his own be tempted into a faint smirk. “Tired of looking at me?” He glanced down at his own naked body in indication.

Cyr waggled his eyebrows. “From a distance, maybe.” He finally shifted over in bed so that he could grab Tal’s hand himself and pull him back unto the sheets.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Red, Zo... this is all your fault.


End file.
